(2) Kit Klein of GoRuck - Building a Global Tribe

That's quite good. You need to grow your firefighter programs. So you can get involved in your rocket for facility under people attitude. I think it's a great way to build community and a great way to find it and yourself. Without further ado, it is the Affiliate Manager at GoRucker National. And let's let it rest. Hi everybody, this is Eric with the Fitness Marketing Alliance, and I am sitting here with Kit Klein from GoRuck, and I'm really excited to talk to him. I know I've been watching GoRuck for a long time and the growth of that business and uh kind of the phenomenon around it. And I'm really excited to have you here, Kit, if you don't mind maybe telling us a little bit about yourself and what GoRuck is.

Sure. Uh happy to be here. Glad I have we made the time to make this happen. Um so about me, um, I've been uh always very interested in the fitness industry in general. Um have worked in some gyms as a trainer, just doing some small stuff in the past. I have uh you know always done sports or some sort of competitive thing. Um, and then as I got older, started, you know, doing the typical nine to five, uh working a cubicle, and this wasn't really loving life too much. It was a lot of that, you know, doing the the nitty-gritty all day, and nine to five would turn into eight to six or eight to seven, and it was really draining on me. So I was looking for something different in my life, something that was gonna really give me some additional fulfillment outside of the job. And from that, I started looking into um obstacle course races. So that started off as you know, warrior dash and things like that. I'm like, you know, this thing's a little short, it's it's not something that is gonna be super challenging for me. Um, so then I came upon the Tough Mutter brand. And from there, uh in the early days, GoRuck was partnered with Tough Mutter um as a way to obviously gain some eyes and and uh promote ourselves a little bit. Um and I wasn't working with GoRuck at the time, but uh I saw that and I was like, okay, if you their their message on the sidebar was that if you do a GoRuck event or a GoRuck challenge, you would then be able to run the Tough Mutter course with a special operations uh you know person, veteran, um, and they would you could do that with a group of people and have some fun. I was like, wow, that sounds really cool. And their event, the go-ruck event, sounded more challenging even than Tough Mudder did. So I was like, all right, well, I'll do the the GoRuck uh tough, then I will go do the Tough Mudder with this group of guys. Um and I did the third ever GoRuck event in New York City back in 2010, and um I was just instantly fell in love. Uh, you know, GoRuck, just uh take a step back, it's basically a gear and event company. Um we run multiple events all over the country. It started off with like 25 events a year back in 2010, and now we run upwards of 10 events a weekend, excuse me, in uh all throughout the state. Yeah, it's major growth. Um, you know, then we've also branched off from just that, you know, challenge event to offer navigators and ascents and uh like survival classes, uh, you know, gun range courses. We have a multitude of um opportunities and and events that people can take advantage of now. And back in the early days when I first started, it was just the one event and we had, I think, about five pieces of gear. And the gear side also grew to you know hundreds of SKUs of t-shirts and all kinds of accessories and things um that we build here in the US. Um, so GoRuck as a brand has grown um into this you know all-encompassing experience where you can do an event um to promote teamwork, it's all about everyone around you, it's never about yourself. Um, and then they take that experience and get it out to their communities and start to be a beacon of community for the people around them and their society. Um, we have a tagline that use uh building better Americans, and that's our goal is to kind of create this group of people who are interested in being a positive influence in their their town, in their community, and their their uh their life and to those around them. And we also take that to our gear, where we really believe we make the best, most durable gear in in the US. Um, and we make it all here because we believe in American manufacturing. Um, our gear also comes with a lifetime guarantee. So if you rip it, tear it, um, you know, under normal circumstances. I mean, you know, if you shoot it with a gun or do some sort of crazy stuff, I mean we'll be here in the story, but you know, we'll we'll probably not fix like a bag that's been thrown into a furnace or something like that. Um but we will, you know, if for a price, we can definitely fix um some extra crazy ways that you may have uh worked on your gear in some event or or you know some great adventure. Um so we kind of take those two things and really focus our business on that. We we want to get people out and active and and not be sitting you know in a cubicle like I used to be all day long and and you know just hating their lives. They want them to we want them to feel that they have a group of people they can come to and say, hey, I want to go and ruck this weekend. And you know, people carry you know 20, 30, 40, 50 pounds in a rucksack and they go walk with their friends, and um you know the rucking is really a center of our business because we believe it's something that anybody can do, of any fitness background, and it's really grown uh across the board for us to include so many different people and and so many great stories because our events are one thing, but the um the way our gear and and uh the rucking ties into it is a really awesome way to to see all that come to fruition as well.

Yeah, that's awesome. I mean, I've seen um you know I've seen the growth of of obstacle course training and and and go ruck, especially. Because you know, I have a friend who's a cadre and I'm a friend who competes for the selection, uh, which is the big one to those of you listening. It's it's that is the big nasty. Um what do you what do you attribute the growth? Like you mentioned something really interesting, which I I find fascinating because I'm I'm you know from a CrossFit background and and that that cubicle life, right? Um, and how people are are looking for a very visceral and real um escape from that. How do you do you think that's a huge factor in what you guys do, or what do you attribute kind of the natural growth of obstacle course training and go ruck? Um what do you think it is? What's the attraction?

So it's honestly what I believe is a it ties to the cubicle life, but it ties to just life in general. I feel that people in general have this inherent ability or belief or um need to test themselves, push their limits, to to try to understand what they can mentally um do or you know what what are their limits. And GoRuck has been a way for a lot of people to test those limits. There's they're tired of you know being the person who just sits at their desk waiting for the weekend. Um, and you know, like, well, what could I do more? Could I be something different? And a GoRuk event provides those two things uh of a community that people can go and reach out to to, like I said earlier, just like go do activities with, but it also offers them a chance to really test their mettle when they come to a Gorg event and you know have to put themselves outside of their comfort zone because we're you know a society where we now just kind of like our we we love comfort, we love ease, we love to um sit on our phones and and not even talk to anybody next to us, um, whether we're waiting in line or a doctor's office, just like your head down looking at your phone. And you know, Gorg event is totally completely opposite. I mean, you can't wear a watch, you have no phone, um, you have to work with the people around you. We put you into leadership positions, whether you like it or not. Like you're gonna have to get in front of a group and potentially lead that group to another uh point during the event. And it's it's something that's not entirely comfortable, but people love that. And for us, the growth has come from word of mouth because those inherent beliefs that people need to accomplish where they're trying to test themselves and need a need a sense of community, they take that after they learn about it and earn their patch at a GoRg event, and then they'll take that to you know their job or their family or you know anything else that they're dealing with, and they they they they tell more people, and telling more people has really been the whole bottom line for us. If we don't run you know a ton of aggressive ads or you know, buy billboards or do something that's your traditional kind of like marketing plan, our our whole model has been based around growing that customer base who will come back for 20. I mean, it's amazing to me how many people have come back for 20 or more events, and it's it's it's just you know an amazing community. And then those people tell their friends, and you know, we also work with gyms a lot because we want to partner with them, obviously, because they're kind of the front line for our um our model, and they get more people to come to events and they they promote sportive rucking and they help us in a lot of ways there too. So it's just been a lot of you know uh relationship building, community building that has really grown us to where we are today.

That that's awesome. You know, it's um with what we do um, and just kind of relate this to you know, fitness marketing alliance and FMA, um, you know, we see our job as we optimize and amplify what what the Fit Pro is doing already, right? And I think you know, the fundamentals of marketing haven't changed, but just avenues have changed in how you can do it. There's so many different options with the digital age. Um what what I think you guys have done, that's incredible. And I think you know, um, you know, the CrossFit uh group has done it well is you've built these this tribe, right? This community of people who won't shut up about what you do. Right. And um can you maybe touch on that? Like what is there anything that you guys do intentionally to build that tribe and to build that community? Um something maybe uh a you know, fitness pro listening out there or gym owner out there can can take some some nuggets from.

So in the digital world, it's it's definitely a challenging place to be because it's so constantly changing. I mean, you know, one technology is there one week and then like it could be a month later, and that could be something completely new, or something that like you know, have to relearn, or new apps that people are using to touch base. And we've really just kind of focused on good content. Um we like to try to create uh an experience. It's all about the experience for our customers. And for somebody that comes to our website, I mean, we spend a lot of time and effort and um resources on taking great pictures, great videos, um, getting some great testimonials from people, filming that, filming the experience of the person going through the event, filming our gear being put to test. And we also really try to engage. I mean, our uh founder Jason is one of the most engaged CEOs I've ever seen or founders for a company where he'll go on Facebook or go on Reddit and spend the time to actually reach out to the community and touch base and talk and ask questions and be completely transparent with what's going on. Um, so that way people have that sense of they don't feel like we're just some cold corporation or you know, cold company that's not willing to even take the time to answer a question. But you know, we uh we're willing to spend the time to actually go out there and and see what you what people's thoughts are. And um that's done great things for us and and built a lot of rapport for our customers and and brought them back again and again. And we have just a great community of people, even on uh Facebook, we have a whole group of people who have completed events. Um, I think it's upwards of almost 20,000 people right now, um, that constantly engage with each other, just you know, uh tell jokes, they they ask questions, they get get that group together, and then there's offshoots from that where people create their own groups, and even from there, we have our uh our um Firebase program where we have a bunch of gyms that are all managed with you know our our team here, and we we reach out to those owners, we talk to them, we see what's going on in their communities, and um we always kind of have uh our our hand on the pulse of what the fans of GovReak are doing so that we can kind of better adapt to their needs, better adapt to what they're looking to accomplish and try to meet those goals.

Yeah, so that's that's awesome. Let's dive into a little bit. Well, I guess two twofold. You know, if if I'm um if I'm cubicle Joe, you know, and I'm I'm sitting looking at um signing up for uh a Go Ruck, what what can you tell me about what that experience will be like? You know, what what does that what does that feel like?

So the initial sign-up is gonna be a super uh nerve-wracking experience. Because we always say it's honestly one of the hardest things is signing up because you're like, oh man, I I don't know if I can handle this. I don't know, you know, do I have to have I trained enough? Am I am I crazy? Like people will look at you crazy when they tell you what a GoRook event is, and and and what I think helps is to understand what it isn't as well, because it's not boot camp, it's not some codric coming up in your face and screaming at you and telling you to do a hundred push-ups, just you know, uh uh in a way that is is degrading or something that's something that's negative. I mean, there's you know, you're gonna be doing push-ups, you're gonna be doing other PT and lifting heavy things and carrying logs and uh you know, each other or other types of things like that, but the end goal is always the team. So signing up for an event, you might feel like an individual, you might feel a little frightened because you're like, okay, I'm I've never done anything like this before, and I'm going into this all by myself. I mean, the best advice is always just like, you know, find some friends and sign up with them so at least you have some support base. But if not, then you can you'll make some friends. I mean, our our uh our people at these events usually have someone or a few people that have done at least one or two events, and from there they kind of help everyone to get into that team aspect, and it happens very quickly. I mean, you're forced to be a team pretty much as soon as you start the event, and you won't even worry about yourself. And then, like what I was saying earlier, it's all about the people around you, and you learn to accept that. So, like as a person who might just be signing up for the first event, it's you know, sign up, you know, think about your training. I mean, our events, you have to have some training. I wouldn't say you have to be, you know, like a CrossFit super athlete or you know, some guy that is able to do like these incredible feats. It's more about what you mentally set yourself up for and you say, you know, I'm not gonna quit no matter what I go through, no matter what I have to face, because our events are designed to not have a specific course or you know, end time. I mean, they obviously have a specific time frame, but as far as you don't know where you're gonna go, you don't know when it's gonna end in in general terms, and you and you also don't have a watch, so you can't even check the time to see where where things are. So it's just mentally thinking, all right, I'm gonna go into this, put everything into it, just completely kind of submit to the you know the whim of whatever the cadre wants to do. And it's definitely unique, it's not one of those events that you're gonna um you know go to a course, have a vendor village, meet at the start line, go run your 5K, and then come back and you know, like eat at the vendor court or something. It's more of a a very like meet on the street corner, meet the cadre, go over some um uh rules and and uh safety briefs, and then from there we go into you know, usually welcome party where they they take the whole group of people and you start doing a bunch of PT until you, you know, until they decide time to move forward. Then you're gonna be completing missions throughout the event, um, whether it's you know moving from one location to another, whether it's moving some large object for uh an undetermined amount of time, or you know, then it's just the end of the event, and then everyone kind of you know shakes hands, gets a patch. Usually they'll go out for a beer afterwards and and they have uh you know 30 new friends with them. So it's uh it's always a really cool experience because you go from maybe not knowing anybody to having you know 30 best friends in the world.

Oh, that's awesome. What what percentage do you think, kid, of people who complete because it wait, okay, let's back up. So there's there's three different levels, right? I think there's uh a light, a tough, and then a heavy. Is that right? Heavy. Yep. What um where would you recommend that most people start?

I mean, it's kind of just your preference. I wouldn't say like, because we've had people go and do a heavy the first time ever. I mean, it's it's like, okay, you know, that takes some gall to do that and say, like, yeah, I actually have the physical ability. Because that's no joke. I mean, 24 hours of doing this is is an intense thing to do, and it's it's you know, gonna be tough and it's gonna be uh wearing on you. So if you have like a very basic level of fitness, it's gonna be up a little bit. But um, you know, a light is gonna be more introductory, more uh I don't want to say lighthearted, but it's something that's just not as um intense. Like it's not something that's gonna be as like uh regimented in terms of what uh what your rules are because you know in a tough, you're gonna have like more specific, they're gonna be watching you closer to make sure that you're working as a team where a light, they're still gonna do those things, but if you screw up a few times and don't you know stay together as a group or whatever you know the rules are that are set forth before the event, it's not gonna be like you know, some major deal, and it never really is, but it's just one of those things that um it's there's just a different feel. It's like a little bit more like you know, oh, we're just hanging out and doing the event, and we're we're we're having a uh a good time, and there's you know some more uh jokes thrown around and all that type of thing. Where a tough is a little more intense, a little more um more focused on the team. And then like I said, the heavy is like the ultimate team event where you're gonna be trying to work together for 24 hours. Um, however, the uh the light is is a great opening event, I would say. I mean tough is though too, because the tough's gonna give you the full experience for a light, you might not get enough uh enough time to really generate that full team feel like you would in a tough.

Okay. And the tough is what, 12 hours? Is that right?

Yeah. Yep, and that usually starts at like 9 p.m. or 1 a.m. Uh we switch the times around a little bit depending on the time of the year and whatnot, but um we, you know, it's a different experience going overnight too. Because like a light is usually in the afternoon or early morning, so that you're still with the sun up uh for the most part, but with a tough you know, nighttime for the majority of your event, and then you're you're done in the early morning, so it's kind of hard to you know, that overnight thing can really do a number on people sometimes.

Yeah, I think um I I think that's the only part that intimidates me is not sleeping. I just I love to sleep, man. I love it. I uh I want to hear more about this firebase program too. I mean, that's um, you know, coming from being a CrossFit gym owner and affiliate owner for a long time, um, you know, I I very much um understand the need to to to build community and and maintain that community and and kind of keep things fresh. Um tell me a little about that program and and how um you know a facility owner or a fitness pro or a gym, you know, anybody can can get involved in that.

Sure. So the firebase program is basically um set up uh to promote the sport of rocking. I mean, that's our basic goal is to get more people, like I was saying earlier, just the gym owners are on the front lines. And in the military, um, I was never a veteran, but uh the the military says that the fire base is usually the um the base that's closest to the to the action, to what's going on. So they're the people that we want to work with because they're literally in front of customers almost every day, um, if not every day. And if you know we work with them and they're they're bought in on the um benefits of rucking, then it is a great resource for us to you know build our customer base, but we want to return the favor as well. That's kind of the whole goal of the program, uh represent reprocity of the whole thing, because we're gonna be saying, all right, you know, we would love for you to. Help us grow the sport of rucking to get people to events to buy gear. But you know, we want to work with you too. So if you have some big event going on, if you're, you know, look, what are the goals of that gym owner or that, you know, cross-showbox or whatever it might be, we want to see what they're trying to do because we can offer a lot of solutions like custom events or you know a large gear purchase or anything like that. And um we can definitely come up with you know some some great opportunities because it's we also do a tiered system within the program so that you basically earn as soon as you sign up an event discount so that we can kind of see how things are going. We can you know see how your gym is performing within the program. But then uh it also incentivizes because the more you use the code, the more you do uh RUCs with your gym, then we can increase the percentage of that. We can also offer um discounts on gear. Uh like I was saying, we do custom events, which are always nice because a custom event for a gym is a great way to build member um unity because then you say, all right, well, we're all gonna do an event that's outside the normal schedule of GoRuck, or we just want to do an event with our people. And it's you know something that everyone can train for, it's people they know, um, and then they can get a custom patch even at the end of it to say, yeah, we as CrossFit ABC just completed a GoRuck event, and you know, here's our patch to show for it. Um, so it's it's just a way for us to really reward those people who are out there helping us and and believing in what we do. And you know, again, we like to return the favor and try to help them in any way we can that fits within our business model, fits with within what we're trying to accomplish as well.

That's really cool. I love that. I love the custom, I love the custom events. Um now I'm gonna lead you in a question because this is what I do for a living, right? How do you see um GoRuck? You know, technology is changing incredibly quick, quick, quicker than most people can even handle. Um, how do you see GoRuck adjusting to you know the digital age and um using that as an advantage for the growth of your business?

Um, I mean, I think it's gonna come down to a lot of um finding a way to bring community together for us, um, whether that's something like meetup.com or you know, like some sort of uh like even like a Fitfit tracker type situation or something where people can kind of come together and say, oh, well, we're rucking. You know, like it's a lot of those those tracker devices, people using an Apple Watch or whatever, like they track where they've been, what they're doing. And it I see us trying to move more into that as well. Like, you know, what are you doing you up to and and finding a community of people because the hard part about what we do is that we're not focused on, you know, like making technology a part of what we're doing. Like I said, we make people you know put away their cell phones and watches and things like that because we want them to fully experience the moment. Um, so the technology is probably more so a way for us to utilize meetups and get togethers, um, and then obviously letting people know what we do and and uh and and inform them about gear and things like that. So I think those are some of the other ways that we're gonna use technology in the in the future.

Awesome. Uh Kit, how um if I'm a uh someone who wants to try a GoRuck event, or if I'm a um you know a fitness pro or uh a facility owner who wants to get in touch with you guys and maybe talk a little bit about events and Firebase, um, how do we get a hold of you?

So the best way to do that, uh we have a link on our website at the bottom of the page that is called GoRuck Firebase. You can click on that link and it will take you to a page outlining the Firebase program. Um and then they can apply, and I we get all those requests on our um uh our emails here so that we can sort them out and then answer them. Um and then you can also just shoot team at goruck.com an email, and uh they'll also help to you know sort out any sort of questions or emails that you have because they're a great our customer service team is awesome, and they'll be happy to help with whatever issues you guys might have or uh even just finding out more information about what we do.

That's awesome. Well, thank you, Kent. I really appreciate your time, man. I I love what you guys are doing at GoRuck, and uh you fired me up. I'm I'm gonna sign up for one. There I said it. Awesome. I said it. Uh and try to get a team together too, and drag some people with me. Um yeah, thank you for your time, and uh we'll keep in touch.

All right, sounds good, man. Looking forward to it.

Hey everybody, this is Eric with the Fitness Marketing Alliance, and I want to say thank you for listening to this episode of the Future of Fitness podcast and webinar series. Uh, we're working really hard here to keep great content coming out, and we'd like to express our guide to you by offering you a free uh seven-day marketing crash course. So here's how you can claim it. If you go to fitnessmarketingalliance.com forward slash free gift f R-E-E-T-I-F-T, and you enter the promo code FIPMARK F I T M A R K, you can claim it that way. That way, if you can text us, you can text the phone number 80561950 and you text the word Fitmark F-I-T-M-A-R-K. So again, that phone number is 805-619-5550. So thank you. Keep listening. Go claim that offered a ton of value. And if you ever want to get a hold of me, or if you have suggestions for guests, topics, or anything else, or if you just want to ask a question, uh, I always respond. You can reach me at Eric Eri T atNetmarketingAlliance.com. And keep listening. We have a lot more coming down the pipe. And so we'll make sure that we're keeping the value great for you guys. And farewell till next time.